Tina Hesman Saey

Tina Hesman Saey

Senior Writer, Molecular Biology

Senior writer Tina Hesman Saey is a geneticist-turned-science writer who covers all things microscopic and a few too big to be viewed under a microscope. She is an honors graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where she did research on tobacco plants and ethanol-producing bacteria. She spent a year as a Fulbright scholar at the Georg-August University in Göttingen, Germany, studying microbiology and traveling.  Her work on how yeast turn on and off one gene earned her a Ph.D. in molecular genetics at Washington University in St. Louis. Tina then rounded out her degree collection with a master’s in science journalism from Boston University. She interned at the Dallas Morning News and Science News before returning to St. Louis to cover biotechnology, genetics and medical science for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. After a seven year stint as a newspaper reporter, she returned to Science News. Her work has been honored by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, the Endocrine Society, the Genetics Society of America and by journalism organizations.

All Stories by Tina Hesman Saey

  1. Health & Medicine

    Why the CDC says it’s crucial to start wearing masks indoors again

    While unvaccinated people are driving the spread of the coronavirus, vaccinated people infected with the delta variant may also easily transmit it.

  2. Health & Medicine

    Why it’s still so hard to find treatments for early COVID-19

    Small studies, unexpected side effects and incomplete information about how drugs work can stymie clinical trials for drugs that can treat COVID-19.

  3. Humans

    Only a tiny fraction of our DNA is uniquely human

    Some of the exclusively human tweaks to DNA may have played a role in brain evolution.

  4. Health & Medicine

    How your DNA may affect whether you get COVID-19 or become gravely ill

    A study of 45,000 people links 13 genetic variants to higher COVID-19 risks, including a link between blood type and infection and a newfound tie between FOXP4 and severe disease.

  5. Health & Medicine

    The benefits of COVID-19 mRNA vaccines outweigh the risk of rare heart inflammation

    A CDC group says the benefits of the Pfizer and Moderna shots outweigh the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis in adolescents and young adults.

  6. Health & Medicine

    Here’s what we know about the risks of serious side effects from COVID-19 vaccines

    Allergic reactions, blood clots and possibly heart problems are rare and their risks don’t outweigh the benefits of getting vaccinated, experts say.

  7. Genetics

    A gene-based therapy partially restored a blind man’s vision

    Light-activated proteins inserted in eye nerve cells and special goggles help the man, who lost his sight due to retinitis pigmentosa, see objects.

  8. Health & Medicine

    The CDC’s changes to mask guidelines raised questions. Here are 6 answers

    Experts weigh in on the U.S. CDC’s recommendation fully vaccinated individuals removing masks indoors and what it means for the pandemic’s future.

  9. Health & Medicine

    Cleaning indoor air may prevent COVID-19’s spread. But it’s harder than it looks

    The size and setup of a room and how the room is used make finding simple ventilation and filtration solutions difficult.

  10. Health & Medicine

    As the COVID-19 pandemic evolves, we answer 7 lingering vaccine questions

    As U.S. vaccination efforts shift to get shots to the hard-to-reach, we take a look at some big questions about vaccines that still remain.

  11. Health & Medicine

    Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine recommended for adolescents by CDC committee

    With the vaccine cleared for high schoolers and many middle schoolers, focus now turns to clinical trials testing COVID-19 vaccines in younger kids.

  12. Life

    Some viruses thwart bacterial defenses with a unique genetic alphabet

    DNA has four building blocks: A, C, T and G. But some bacteriophages swap A for Z, and scientists have figured out how and why they do it.